


Road Tripping

by lyryk (s_k)



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-29
Updated: 2013-04-29
Packaged: 2017-12-09 21:07:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/777990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/s_k/pseuds/lyryk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes, someone else’s company is even better than one’s own.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Road Tripping

**Author's Note:**

  * For [quintenttsy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/quintenttsy/gifts).



> Many thanks to the wonderful [planejane](http://planejane.livejournal.com) for the beta.

The best holiday present you can give yourself, Annis decides, is to go off on an extended road trip without anyone else along for company.

She’s at a pub in the middle of who-knows-where, her hands wrapped around her second Irish coffee of the evening. Outside, the sun’s starting to go down, spilling yellow-orange through the window glass beside her, spreading desultory patterns on the red checked tablecloth. The decor’s trying a little too hard, but she’s okay with it, really. There’s some vaguely Nordic-sounding music playing in the background, not too loud. Her book of notes is back at her room in the bed-and-breakfast, because tonight is not a night for work. Instead, she’s got a Laura Esquivel open on her table next to her bowl of salted peanuts. 

She looks up from her book and glances around the pub for a bit. She’s not really a people-watcher, but sometimes random glimpses of things—an expression on someone’s face, half-revealing momentary annoyance or unintentional distraction; the way the light catches someone’s hair; the blinking blue or green of someone’s mobile phone—set her mind thinking in ways that she couldn’t have come up with herself, as though she’s stealing bits and pieces from other people’s lives like an unnoticed magpie, pilfering small things that they’d never notice were missing.

When a pair of sharp grey eyes locks with hers, she realises with a start that she’s been gazing just a little too long. That almost never happens. Caught out, she glances away quickly. The girl’s half her age, raven hair spilling messy and shiny around her face and shoulders, black t-shirt too tight and too short, black jeans and black boots and black nail polish announcing a look that doesn’t really fit well on her, even if it’s compellingly attractive. 

The girl holds her gaze, and Annis doesn’t look away. Lips outlined in dark chocolate quirk at the corners, and Annis is suddenly short of breath at the possibilities that suggest themselves, fully-formed, in her head.

‘This isn’t my usual look.’ The girl leans forward, shrugging, as though they’d been in the middle of a conversation, reading Annis’s mind like a book. She nods toward the Esquivel. ‘That one’s not too hot, yeah?’

Annis glances down at the open book, its pages fluttering in an invisible breeze. ‘Not really, no. You’ve read Esquivel?’

The girl grins. ‘Required reading only, I’m afraid.’

There’s nothing to be said to that, so Annis takes another sip of her coffee and says, ‘What’s your usual look, then?’

‘A business suit, if you’d believe that.’ When Annis snorts, the girl laughs. ‘I’ve been dressing this way lately because it pisses off my dad.’ She drains the last of her beer and gets to her feet, holding out a hand. ‘Morgana.’

‘Annis.’ She takes the proffered hand. It’s warmer than the girl’s appearance implies, the bare fingers firm around hers, squeezing tightly.

Morgana doesn’t immediately let go. ‘Listen, I’m sorry if I’m reading this wrong, but you were checking me out earlier, right?’

Maybe it’s the Irish coffee, or maybe it’s the fact that this is an incognito vacation, after all, but Annis smiles, leans a little closer. ‘And if I was?’ Morgana’s perfume is heady, her forthrightness irresistible. 

‘Then maybe we should go back to yours.’

Annis nods, fingers tightening around the girl’s. Morgana leans over her and brushes their lips together, quick and desperate, her nails digging into the soft skin at the nape of Annis’s neck.

 

\--

 

She brings Morgana off quick and dirty, pressed up against the door of Annis’s room as soon as they enter, two fingers buried inside her and her thumb rubbing in circles, Morgana’s gasps of pleasure swallowed by her mouth.

Morgana returns the favour once she’s recovered a little, her dark head buried between Annis’s thighs, her soft, quick tongue moving expertly, letting out small sounds in between licks, as though she’s the one being pleasured.

 

\--

 

They only mean to sleep for a while, but Annis wakes to light spilling in from the cracks in the curtains and Morgana wrapped around her like a small but determined octopus.

‘You’re on a road trip, right?’ Morgana asks over breakfast, biting into her toast and marmalade with a crunch. She’s still got a glow of amusement on her face from laughing so hard at the landlady’s assumption that Annis’s daughter had turned up sometime during the night. They hadn’t bothered to correct her.

‘Sort of, yes. More like a writing trip, really.’

‘So what’re you writing?’

‘Are you always this inquisitive?’

Morgana appears to consider the question, her wicked little smirk lingering on her lips. ‘Pretty much, yeah.’

Annis laughs. ‘I’m writing a book.’

‘No kidding.’ Morgana rolls her eyes, her foot sliding against Annis’s beneath the table, sending a pleasant shiver up Annis’s calf. 

‘It’s just theory, I’m afraid. Not a very exciting topic for conversation.’

‘Mm. You wouldn’t be doing it though if it didn’t turn you on.’

‘No. No, I wouldn’t.’

‘So listen.’ There’s a bit of insecurity in Morgana’s tone now, her make-up-less face unshadowed, a little vulnerable. ‘I’ve got nowhere to be over the next few days, so I was thinking maybe you’d like some company.’

‘I’d like that very much.’ She might have said those words anyway—today, she’s in the state of mind that demands the company of someone other than herself—but she surprises herself to find that she means it. It’s all very well to pick up a stranger for a quick fuck, but Annis hasn’t done this in far too long—slept in the same bed with another woman all night, made plans to spend more time together right on the morning after. There’s just something about Morgana.

 

\--

 

‘Ready?’ Annis asks, glancing at Morgana.

‘As I’ll ever be,’ Morgana grins back. She’s made up again, bright lipstick hiding the paleness of her lips, glittering eye-shadow obscuring the lack of sleep that haunts her eyes. If she believed in such things, Annis might almost believe she was a sprite of some sort, maybe the Geraldine to her Christabel (or vice versa), like something out of a poem she’d once loved but hadn’t read in years. She doesn’t usually think of herself as a good reader of people, her life’s revolved far too much around academia for that, but she senses the scars beneath Morgana’s skin, knows that she’s running away from something, embracing the road as the only thing that offers solace. 

Annis knows the feeling, and she suspects they’ll get along together just fine. She leans across and kisses Morgana, the girl’s strawberry lip gloss sticky and sweet against her mouth.

 

~end


End file.
